In Strasbourg on Monday 5 February, the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, outlined the European instruments that could be mobilised to support the solar panel industry in the European Union. She did not announce any new measures to encourage production on European soil, as requested by the sector’s representatives. They recently warned against the risk of certain European plants closing. At issue is the domination of the European market by Chinese solar panels, which account for more than 97% of solar panels deployed in the EU because of their low price.
RePowerEU, the ‘Net Zero Industry Act’ (NZIA), the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) and the relaxed rules on State aid were all mentioned as tools that could be used to support the production of solar panels in the EU.
As for a trade measure to curb imports of Chinese solar panels, the European Commissioner warned against the potential negative effects of an investigation and potential anti-dumping or anti-subsidy tariffs on these products. “Any potential measure needs to be weighed against the objectives we have set ourselves when it comes to the energy transition”, concluded Mairead McGuinness.
This view is shared by Nils Redecker, Deputy Director of the Jacques Delors Centre in Berlin. “The Commission could start anti-subsidy investigations, but this would do more harm than good. Cheap PV prices are bad for European manufacturers but good for the EU’s deployment and climate goals”, he said.
Solar industry representative SolarPowerEurope has called in the short term for a special instrument from the European Commission to buy up existing stocks from European producers, as well as bank guarantees from the Member States. However, nothing has been announced by the Commission to this effect.
During the European Parliament debate, Maria da Graça Carvalho (EPP, Portuguese) said that “it is urgent to adopt measures to boost investment”. Her colleague Michael Bloss (Greens/EFA, German) agreed: “It’s clear that we need to use European funding opportunities to support the solar panel industry”. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)